


Penance

by LuxKen27



Series: A Road Less Travelled [24]
Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-05
Updated: 2009-07-05
Packaged: 2018-04-16 17:05:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4633251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuxKen27/pseuds/LuxKen27
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sesshoumaru undertakes an annual ritual.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Penance

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: The _Inuyasha_ concept, story, and characters are copyright Rumiko Takahashi and Viz Media.

She watched him from a distance as he made his way down to the coast. The sky was the color of slate, the sun sinking below the watery horizon, bathing the otherwise pristine white sand with a hazy, orange glow. The wind swirled as it rode the waves to shore, stirring through his silvery hair, billowing through the voluminous sleeves of his kimono. He halted when his toes met the cool rush of the sea, lifting his head to gaze out over the water, golden eyes meeting golden sun.

Her heart wrenched in her chest, the need to be at his side clawing up from the very core of her being, but she held herself firmly in place.

This was something he wished to do alone.

Kagome wrapped her arms around herself, shivering in the cool night air. The chill of the breeze didn’t seem to affect him, however; he stood still as a statue on the water’s edge, clad only in a white silk kimono and his trademark yellow obi. The sea swirled at his feet, but he paid it no heed – she could see, as he stood in profile to her, that his eyes were now closed, his features settling into their usual impassive mask as he sank back into his memories.

He was a hard man to love. He was a hard man to understand. Friends, family, acquaintances had long since given up asking her why she allowed him to indulge in such a strange ritual, or why she insisted on accompanying him on this yearly pilgrimage to the sea. After all, his intent was to mourn a long dead lover, to relive a memory five hundred years past.

But what they couldn’t comprehend, she felt with acute clarity. She knew the weight of his grief, the burden he hid from the rest of the world.

She was all too aware of what it meant to love, and be loved; what it meant to lose, and be lost.

His hands curled into fists at his sides, and she knew he was remembering what it was like to storm into hell without looking back, to turn away from the light of the outside world and follow a dead girl’s scent, to press a lifeless body to his chest and realize the weight and value of mortality. She had been in hell once herself, staring down the darkness of the void with little hope of seeing the ones she loved alive again. She had been rescued, just as Rin had been, brought back to life by a compassionate heart.

_He had done what was best for her at the time…_

A lone tear trickled from the corner of his eye, and she couldn’t stand it any longer; she hated to see him cry. She pushed herself up from her perch, pressing forward against the whipping wind, reaching out for this man with the haunted eyes, this man who had unexpectedly met her on the other side of time after the well closed for good, this man who had told her the fate of her friends, of her beloved…and of his.

He was shaking as she wrapped her arms around him, his breath heaving from his chest in long, jagged sighs. He did not return her embrace, and she knew he was in the worst of it now, recalling those horrible, final moments, berating himself for being unable to save her one last time. He had been the most powerful taiyoukai on earth, ruling over an empire his human contemporaries could only dream of, and yet even he had been powerless to stop the staid march of death.

Tears prickled behind her eyes as she tightened her grip on his waist, pressing herself into his side, reminding him that he still had something to live for on this, the anniversary of Rin’s death. 

That first year, he had disappeared without telling her, coming here to grieve alone; only by the grace of the kamis did she find him in time, before he could launch himself into the sea and finally join his beloved in the afterlife. She was well aware of the intensity of his grief, the seductive call of death from the depths of sorrow and pain…and that’s why she insisted on accompanying him now, in spite of the pain it caused her – not to stop him from grieving, but to save him from himself. 

Finally, after what seemed like hours, he shifted in her embrace, nudging her forward, wrapping his arms around her, and lowering his head to the curve of her shoulder. Slowly, she felt his heart calm in his chest, his breathing even out, his violent trembling subside. 

When at last he released her, moonlight shimmered overhead. Kagome glanced up as they parted, a small smile curving the corners of her mouth, relief washing over her. Another year survived; another year to live.

She clasped his hand, golden eyes meeting sapphire for a fleeting moment before they set off on the long journey back to her car.

Another year to love.


End file.
